This invention relates to the field of power tools, and more particularly, to a safety hand guard for a radial arm saw, chop saw, swing saw or other power saws.
With the introduction of power tools, motorized saws have been successfully utilized to promote the trades. These motorized saws generally have common components, including a circular saw blade, driven by an electric motor, which may be attached to a table. The table is used to support the workpiece.
One of the inherent dangers in the use of these type of saws is that the workman must pull the saw blade through the workpiece while the workman's hand is very close to the location of the saw blade. The saw blade will then cut the workpiece to the desired length. Obviously, the motorized saw blade is quite dangerous if the workman's fingers or hand should be placed across the plane of the motorized blade. Many accidents either in the individual shop or garage, or in the industrial use of such power devices occur. The injuries are often quite serious and involve the dismemberment of fingers or other body parts. It is an object of this invention to provide a safety device that would greatly reduce or completely eliminate injuries such as those described above.
Another problem in using motorized saws is that the workpiece may kick up and out of the saw blade and table, which could also cause serious injury to the workman. At the very least, the workpiece that kicks up during the cutting process would be ruined and another workpiece would have to be used in its place. Heretofore, the workpiece has been held in place by the workman's hand so that it will not kick up during the cutting process. This places the workman's hand in the dangerous conditions described above. It is another object of this invention to provide a device that not only protects the workman's hand but also is designed to keep the workpiece in place without the use of a workman asserting downward pressure on the workpiece with his hand.
Although other safety devices have been devised, none of them provide the ease of mounting and universal application as does the present invention. Additionally, most other patents cover the blade, rather than the worker's hand. For example, the 1979 patent issued to Batson for a Guard Mechanism for a Radial Arm Saw is directed toward the field of protecting the workman during the cutting process, but provides a cover for the blade, not the hand. Additionally, saw blade guards such as those found in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,532,841 and 4,576,073, direct themselves to the protection of the workman, although they do not simply address all of the problems and nuances involved in this particular art.
Another object of this invention to provide a universally attachable saw handguard safety device which not only protects the workman's hand, but also provides a mechanism to hold the workpiece to the table while further providing a means to position the workpiece on the table in the usual manner. It is a still further object of this device to provide a saw hand guard safety device which is openly accessible from the front to facilitate the loading and unloading of the workpiece on the cutting service. Other and further objects of this device will become apparent upon reading the below described Specification.